I see some people saying she is in SoO. I'll be happy with that. I thought she was just entirely not present. She doesn't need to be a spotlight character but I felt her history with Garrosh meant that she should have been involved somehow with this story. Having her along on this raid makes it feel ok to me.

But seriously, has anyone noticed that ever single Orc introduced since WOTLK is going to die in Orgrimmar or already has? Agmar is MIA (presumed dead since Wyrmbane appears on the Pincer during Forsaken questing), Zaela is dying in SoO, Nazgrim is dying in SoO, Eitrigg is apparently dying in SoO (though he wasn't introduced in WOTLK). I wouldn't be surprised if Saurfang bites it at some point or another during the Garrosh fight.

I've said in the past that the reason that the Alliance tends to loose characters by the bucket to corruption, insanity, death or neutrality is because they have so many to spare. Since the Horde (Thrall's Horde) was basically made from scratch for WoW they had no replacements, so they never lost anyone. It's taken this long for the Horde to have enough characters with enough background for the players to notice and care when they die, but still have replacements to fill the void afterward.

After SoO, Horde lore characters will be effectively indestructible since there will be no one left to replace them if they die. The Alliance still has truckloads of replacement lore characters, so expect them to have plenty of deaths for the next expansion or two.

Velen being a pure good character when they are trying to (and failing, really) to write a grey story means that he's probably going to get left on the bench.

Sylvanas is an opposite character, at this point, to Velen. And that probably makes her an equally bad tool.

The problem is that they've built up Varian so much Alliance side, and how he does no wrong, that he's turned into a super-white character, and that they've made Garrosh (and the Orcs, since all of them seem to follow him) as super-evil characters.

But seriously, has anyone noticed that ever single Orc introduced since WOTLK is going to die in Orgrimmar or already has? Agmar is MIA (presumed dead since Wyrmbane appears on the Pincer during Forsaken questing), Zaela is dying in SoO, Nazgrim is dying in SoO, Eitrigg is apparently dying in SoO (though he wasn't introduced in WOTLK). I wouldn't be surprised if Saurfang bites it at some point or another during the Garrosh fight.

I wouldn't really call Sylvanas the polar opposite of Velen though. While she can and does appear evil at times she still is good deep down. Archimonde and Kil'jaeden would be the polar opposite of Velen. They don't give two shits about anything but their own power. Amusingly enough Kil'jaeden and Velen were BFF's in the past.

I think Blizzard are saving whatever might happen with Sylvanas for a rainy day or something, be that a big betrayal like everyone is expecting or something totally different that catches us all off guard. Whenever the question of what Sylvanas is up to in the Undercity is presented to Metzen or Kosak or whoever the answer is always "She's up to something. We'll leave it at that for now". Normally Blizzard let at least a few hints slip concerning future lore developments when asked but they're being oddly tight-lipped about this particular issue. Should be good once it actually happens.

likely she is the subject of a major game event, possibly one around which an expansion is partially oriented, and they don't want to deflate anything earlier than needed.

that story has been developed far to far in the direction of the lich king's own actions for this character not to end up in a raid down the line.

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Originally Posted by Ixuzcc

I bet most players don't even know the name of the Draenei leader (or his signifigance, especially in relation to a few high profile baddies)

wasn't he all friends with the dude with all the legions he said he commanded on top of kara? (and the guy stuck in the floor in swp?)

Did i mention id LOVE TO SEE GAROSH RAISED AS THE BANSHEE QUEENS MINION!

That would be interesting.

OT, I think she was briefly mentioned in Tides of War, but only very briefly. She told Garrosh she wasn't excited about being all alone on the Eastern Kingdoms with the Alliance while he was doing his warmongering stuff on Kalimdor and pissing them off good. I believe that was just about it.

Its not so much that they are lazy but that they keep focusing on the same lore characters. When are we going to stop hearing about Thrall? Never because that's Metzen's avatar and he doesn't give a shit about anything else in lore. Unfortunately unless Metzen leaves his position its always going to be Orcs vs Humans, or should I say Thrall vs Everyone else.

At least we can have a conversation about Sylvanas and what she may be up to based around the events of Cataclysm and her being involved in SoO.

Whens the last time anybody cared to ask what High Tinker Mekkatorque was up to? Did I even spell his name correctly? Is that even his title? I don't know and I can't be bothered to look it up because he hasn't once mattered.

I think the better question is, who actually cares that High Tinker Mekkatorque exists at all? If not for the arbitrary "rule" that all factions have to have a leader, he probably wouldn't exist. If you're a Gnome player who chose Gnome for aesthetic or lore reasons, I'd bet you'd be in the minority in contrast to those who choose Gnome for the class base stats, or to make things a little more difficult for clickers to target them, or for the derp factor.